Buying new chicks every year

[chickie fam]

What about hatching their own eggs? Wouldn't that be better then buying the chicks every year?

 

[Illia]

Quote:
People often make the excuse of not having the time, worrying too much of how much it takes to care for the eggs, and of course there's also buying an incubator or having a broody hen (if they didn't buy from a hatchery, they wouldn't have to worry. . .) And then there's buying hatching eggs, lots of people think there's too much risk of not having any eggs hatch or there's too much money in paying for them.

 

[chickie fam]

So I guess it comes down to personal preference? Whether you want to hatch your own eggs or let your hen go broody every so often

 

[happyhensny]

We hatch in an incubator, hatch under broodies AND buy chicks every year. Why you ask? SALES! Those rainbow pullet specials lure me in every time! Different color girls and eggs. Just can't help myself.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Not everybody wants to hatch their own since there is going to be the inevitable problem of what to do with the excess cockerels.

Also, for some birds they can't hatch their own since the production hybrids (even many White Leghorns are strain hybrids) are the products of large breeding programs that cannot be replicated outside of a commercial setting.

I both hatch my own and order new birds every year.

 

[Judy]

I got breeds that have some likelihood of going broody (per Henderson's) with the plan of the broody hatching my own replacements, which is looking good right now, 2 hatches this winter and hopefully more broodies in spring. It's fine with me to get roos because the whole idea was to eat some and keep some for eggs. The only real problem is no one really wants to eat the older birds. Need to do some more experimenting with cooking them. Found a recent article on cooking these birds that has renewed my interest:

http://www.albc-usa.org/documents/cookingwheritagechicken.pdf

I bought two batches of chicks to get started, mostly because I hadn't found BYC or all the great info on here at the time I bought the first batch. Bought a few chicks one time before my roos were mature and I had a broody I couldn't break. Otherwise they have hatched here, without an incubator, and I don't want one, thank you.

 

[chickie fam]

I want to eventually try to hatch my own and let the hens go broody but I'd like a few different breeds along with some mixes. I'd eventually like to get away from having to buy them every so often.

I must admit, I'd really like to have some rainbow eggs. When I was looking through trying to figure out what chicks to buy it was really hard not to get almost every breed they had. The variety and all the colors and different looks amaze me

 

[drdoolittle]

ddawn wrote:

The only real problem is no one really wants to eat the older birds. Need to do some more experimenting with cooking them. Found a recent article on cooking these birds that has renewed my interest:

A friend of mine said that if the birds (especially roos) are over 6 months old, you need to simmer them in a pot on the stove for 24-36 hours. Then it makes the best chicken for chicken and noodles, chicken soup, or chicken stew-----or even white chili! You just can't try to bake or fry the older birds----it comes out rubbery.​

 

[chickie fam]

That is our plan as well. we wanted chickens for laying, eating and their poo for fertilizer for our compost pile. Our first batch of chickens that I got for free (and thought was a great deal!) turned out to be all cockerels. People have asked me what I'm going to do with them and our plan is to keep a couple nice ones for regular roos and the other ones will either be for eating or giving away if anyone wanted them.

I wonder if you cook older chicken in a crockpot all day in some juices if that would help it be tender?

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
I'm sure hoping because that's what I intend to do with my older hens once they've been "retired". The only chooks I've processed so far have been young roos. Some I've roasted and some I did in the crockpot and they were delicious both ways but with the older hens, the only way I could think to do it was to let them simmer a long time in the crockpot.